A lot like a…/-/ Bad Santa Spiced Brownies

Not Christmas! It’s already truly settled, so that’s not it. My blog has finally got the makeover I been procrastinating and untalented enough to do myself!

I am now on WordPress, so it be much easier for me to manage the stuff here (because my brother in law says it designs so anyone can use it)
Yep, Welcome to new site look for the THE MOONBLUSH BAKER! with your nocturnal baker me, Belinda. I can not express how pleased I am; my very talented brother in law and sister for doing this formatting stuff for me. So please an up standing cheer for these two! *Up high Spirit fingers*
Of course the site has a few loose ends right now but I am working on it right now. Bear with me, I am not great (in fact I am borderline hopeless) at any kind of website HTML, CSS, feed linking etc. but I will get there in the end. It is the holidays after all and I am going to send most of my time on here to bring the best of what I have baked over the past few months (re making and re shooting again) for you my lovely readers.

So if you want to keep on getting my feed for the to be feature delicious treats here I listed the options below.If you currently follow me on BlogLovin’– I am in the process of getting the URL update for the feed so you guy won’t need to do a thing! I am also going to place the button the side bar for you convenience to follow me whenever you want.If you are google+ reader or google reader– I think I have changed the feed the blog to this one, so you will also not have to change but if anyone can help me check if it works it will be a big help. Alternatively you can RSS to the new website via the social buttons on the very top the screen the the right hand corner.

There are also my social buttons were you can follow my Instagram’s, tweets, facebook updates, google+ account and Pinterest post for you convenience. I post my blog update immediately to these outlets, so you can follow them all if you like. There is also email subscription for those who do have these outlets.

ALSO do not panic! I have re directed my old website to this one! I have yet to figure out how to do it to the individual posts but I will get to that…. Any help peeps?

Anyway enough with the technical stuff and on the things I do best, Bake! I teased you with a brownie at the beginning of the post and I deliver!

I was always filled with questions about Santa. As I kid I used to wonder How Santa could fly around the world in one night, eat a billion cookies and even more glasses of milk, and not be stuffing for a case of sugar over load or going to the loo every 10 minutes. I still put it down to magic.
Also if Santa is now grey, he had to be young at one point, surely! As long as you are human, you will have to go through all the stages to physical maturity. Cringe at EMOtional teen years.

I think when Santa was in his 20-30s he would have the British charisma of Mr. Darcy (everyone seems to love him…), have the looks of that Gosling guy; and be as kind and diplomatic Barack Obama. If young Santa was like this he should have had his fair share of booze, cars and parties too!

I guessing when he first started, he would of needed more than just a cookie and milk to keep in a joyful mood. For such a long ride you need a tipple or two to keep you happy. While these are not Space brownies, I think young Santa would approve of the amount of bourbon I laced into these Bad Santa Spiced Brownies.

I was inspired and (hungry) to make these after reading Stephanie’s (Girl verse Dough) post on her Christmas brownies. Love her blog and her recipe!

This brownie is a bit confused. The texture is more like a brownie but has the crusty, crackly topping of a flourless chocolate cake which is the ONLY way brownies should be. Fudgy, dense and have an intensely gooey sense of satisfaction once you take the first bite. However the texture must be there which are played by the candied chestnut pieces and pecans.

They sunk to the bottom but they act as nut crust for this brownie. The faint snap of caramel in the final moments gives you something to chew on long after the brownie is gone. It becomes like a soft toffee in this brownie. Rightfully these are spiced with all your Christmas faves, were theycomplement the booze and nuts so perfectly.

The salt is optional but for me sweet and salty is a great and needed to boost the sweetness of 70% dark Chocolate. These were gone in a matter of days from my fridge and I made another one to shoot!

The magic of Santa might of disappeared for me but if you leave these for your “Bad Santa” on the 24th, he will be a happy camper.

Pre heat oven to 160 C. Line the tray with baking paper with an overhang of 5cm. In a medium heat proof bowl melt chocolate and butter together on a pot of simmering water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water, if so use a smaller sauce pan. Stir to combine and set aside for 10 minutes.

While chocolate is cooling whisk eggs, yolks, vanilla bean seeds and sugar in a stand mixer to very pale and fluffy. I did mine for about 6 minutes.
Place you flour, spices and salt in a bowl and give it a good stir to combine well.

Stir in bourbon to the chocolate mixture. Remove egg mixture from the stand mixer and roughly fold the chocolate into the bowl until almost combined. Add flour, spices and salt and fold till not flour is seen. Add chestnuts and pecan and fold until just combined.

Pour in to the tray, sprinkle salt flakes and bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes. For REALLY dense brownies go for 45 but I took mine out at 50 min.

Allow to cool in tine then transfer to the fridge over night before cutting.

It would be fine to leave the nuts out. However I would replace them either with dark chocolate pieces, about 125g, and a small amount of flour, about 40g. This will help it not become a puddle in the pan. Spices can be left out with no changes. You may also replace equal amounts of dried fruit or seeds if you like in these brownies.
Thanks Lauren for your questions and I hope your family love them